Sunday, August 16, 2015
Associated Press
ROME
At least 40 migrants died Saturday in the hold of an overcrowded smuggling boat in the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya, apparently killed by fuel fumes, and some 320 others aboard were saved by the Italian navy, the rescue ship’s commander said.
Migrants by the tens of thousands are braving the perilous journey across the Mediterranean this year, hoping to reach Europe and be granted asylum. They are fleeing war, persecution and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
“The dead were found in the hold,” said Cmdr. Massimo Tozzi, speaking from the navy ship Cigala Fulgosi while the rescue was still ongoing. Asked by RaiNews24 how the migrants died, Tozzi said “it appears to be from inhaling exhaust fumes.”
When rescuers stepped aboard the boat, the bodies of migrants were “lying in water, fuel, human excrement” in the hold, Tozzi said.
The death toll was not yet final.
“They are still counting the victims,” Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told reporters.
Tozzi said the survivors included three children and 45 women, some of whom “were crying for their husbands [and] their children who died in the crossing.”